TATTOO

Patterns punctured into the skin
fragments of an unspeakable name
tattooed on her tortured wrist
numbers adding and subtracting
the pigment of her mythical race
and of my name too across history
Her engraved flesh
the manuscript of a book
she said she had written
on scraps of paper
while giant horses
raced across the land
over spilled heads
and broken bones
In my dream that night
after she folded her arm
under her head as a pillow
a giant hoof struck our twin faces
as I knelt before her
to suck the blood from her wrist
where my nails had erased our name